Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and David Evennett

Tuesday 20th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I will be happy to write to the hon. Gentleman to talk to him about that initiative. We are making great progress in our schools—we have risen to fourth in the global league table for reading—but we can always do more.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

T6. I welcome my right hon .Friend’s commitment to making inflation and the cost of living his top priority, as it is also a top priority of my constituents. Does he agree that the Institute for Fiscal Studies is entirely correct to say that Labour’s plans for £28 billion of borrowing in its green prosperity plan would simply lead to higher rates of interest and higher inflation?

[Jeremy Hunt]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right; the answer to inflation is to tackle it, not to make it worse.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and David Evennett

Tuesday 7th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

That is exactly why we are taking difficult decisions to give this country a high-skill, high-wage economy—measures that the Scottish National party opposed at every step.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

10. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support businesses with energy costs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and David Evennett

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

Of course, there are lessons to be learned about the way those schemes were administered, but I am very proud that unemployment remains at a 50-year low because of the decisions that the Prime Minister took on the furlough scheme and Government-backed loans. That was the right thing to do.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I regularly visit small businesses and entrepreneurs across my constituency of Bexleyheath and Crayford. They are the backbone of our local economy, but like families, they have been badly hit by the cost of living. Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that this Government will do all they can to help small businesses across the country to thrive?

[Jeremy Hunt]

That is what Conservatives are all about so I am happy to give him that assurance. It is not just words; it is action: the halving of business rates for most retail, hospitality and leisure businesses; the freezing of the multiplier on business rates; the furlough scheme; the Government-backed loans and the energy price support that we are giving businesses. All that is because this Government back business.